Mother’s Intuition? – A review of “Protecting the Gift”

“Protecting the Gift” takes the principles of professional threat predictor (never can get his official title!) Gavin De Becker’s most famous work “The Gift of Fear” and applies it to parents. More precisely, it takes ideas explored towards the end of “The Gift of Fear” – violence and sexual predation of children, including child on child abuse – and expands upon them.

As is the nature of De Becker, the basis for his personal security and threat prediction of potential predators lies in his belief of the active listening to one’s intuition. Intuition is what De Becker believes we generally term as “fear”. He sees it working on a subconscious level, picking up on potential threats and warning signs. De Becker says that upon interviewing survivors of assaults he has revealed how the victim actually foresaw the danger that engulfed them ahead of time, but they went against their instincts. The same principle is applied to worried parents; the fabled “mother’s intuition” if you will.